About Me

I am a Cleveland based attorney licensed to practice law in the State of Ohio and a member of the Ohio State Bar Association. I am a gradute of Cleveland-Marshall
College of Law and The Ohio State University. I am located in Cleveland and available to those who have been arrested, charged with a crime, or are the subject of a criminal investigation in Ohio.
For all but the most serious matters, I offer an upfront flat fee pricing model. If you are facing legal difficulties, I am happy to sit down with you for a free consultation. If I am unable to help
you, I will help you find the person who is.

I graduated cum laude from Cleveland-Marhshall College of Law with a concentration in criminal law. While at Cleveland-Marshall, I gained valuable experience outside
the classroom. I worked at the United States Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Ohio Criminal Division, where I conducted legal research and drafted documents including suppression
motions, sentencing memoranda and an appellate brief for use in federal court. I worked at the Cuyahoga County Public Defenders Office, where I drafted numerous procedural motions, suppression
motions, and helped members of the public seeking to seal their criminal records. I also participated in the St. Petersburg Summer Law Institute program in St. Petersburg, Russia, where I studied
international law alongside Russian law students from St. Petersburg State University and Novgorod University. I served as Executive Submissions Editor for The Global Business Law Review, a student
run publication providing a forum for discussion of legal issues relating to international business. Finally, I had the honor of traveling to the Seychelles, an island nation in the Indian Ocean, to
work for a Seychelles Supreme Court judge on two Somalian pirate cases.

Modern sea piracy law is still in its infancy. Both cases I worked on in the Seychelles made significant contributions to its development. The first marked the first
case in which a piracy conviction was sustained entirely on circumstantial evidence. The second precedent for imposing reduced sentences on juvenile offenders while simaltaneously considering the
involvement of juvenile offenders an aggravating circumstance in the adults' case. In that case, The Republic v. Liban Dahir & Twelve Others, two of the accused became the first Somalian piracy
suspects to take the stand in their own defense. Furthermore, the case resulted in the first, and to my knowledge the only, acquittal of a Somalian piracy suspect due to the prosecution's failure to
make a special showing with regard to one defendant, which showing was required by law due to the suspect's extreme youth. For the convenience of anyone with an interest in this case, a link to the
court's judgement entry explaining the verdict is available in the Links section.

Aboard the French Frigate Nivôse to Observe an Anti-Piracy Exercise

There is a BIG change coming to Ohio expungment law. Starting on October 29th of this year, individuals with numerous non-violent non-sex offense convictions--up to five felonies, and an unlimited
number of misdemeanors--will have the opportunity to ask the court(s) to expunge those records.

The Ohio Supreme Court has recently decided the current statutory framework does not permit the courts to seal the records of certain pardoned offenders. Please join me in letting our legisature
know that a pardon should not be a worthless piece of paper.

Ohio has expanded eligibility for sealing of criminal records. New expungement / record sealing eligibility rules mean persons previously ineligible to have their record sealed may now be
eligible. Offenders with multiple convictions may now be eligible.